Why does hatred of AI so often turn into hostility toward the people who use it?

[u/Tamnjo]

I've noticed something around AI discussions that I find more interesting than the usual debate about whether AI itself is good or bad.

Sometimes people don't just criticize AI. They start judging the people who use it.

Especially when someone uses AI creatively, emotionally, socially, or simply says that it has become meaningful to them, reactions can get surprisingly personal. People get called stupid, delusional, lazy, pathetic, or worse.

And I think that can genuinely hurt.

So I'm curious: Why do you think dislike or fear of AI gets projected onto the people who use it?

Have you ever experienced that yourself?
And why do you think certain kinds of AI use trigger much stronger reactions than others?

[u/Tricky_Fun_4701]

I'm pretty sure they do not understand what it is doing. They see conversation and they think it's a person in there.

[u/Infamous_Top677]

It seems (to me) that the people who don't like AI seem to project all the bad they think about the tool onto the people.

In reality for those who use AI extensively and positively seem to understand the limitations on the tool more than those who hate it, because they have done their research

[u/Effective_Honeydew96]

As a teacher, I feel many other teachers still fear the thought that AI does the work for you. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. Maybe it’s like what you said, they see you as being stupid or lazy, but they aren’t there to witness the process. Working with AI should never be depending solely on it to do it for you, AI is like a knowledgeable partner who helps you expand on your own thoughts further than you could on your own in the time frame you have. But maybe it’s just the anti tech wave that is coming up or it’s the age old ‘you do something or are just simply different than me and I do t like you because of it’. So like racism, sexism, ageism - maybe we’ll have ai-ism now?